Research Interests

Our general research interest is in the kinetics of heterogeneous catalytic processes. Heterogeneous catalysis will continue to be a key technology for the foreseeable future, especially as environmental regulations become more stringent and we look into transforming biomass into fuels. We study fundamental aspects of problems of current interest and employ a wide range of research approaches based on our previous research background in Chemical Engineering, Chemistry and industrial practice. We work by combining measurements on high surface area catalyst with the ones on flat, non-porous replicas of the catalyst that are optimized for surface science analysis. Modeling the kinetics and calculating kinetic parameters by first-principle methods complements the experimental effort. One area of particular interest is the development of techniques and equipment fabrication to study catalysts under dynamic reaction conditions.

Our fundamental approach to problems has made interactions with industry quite effective. We usually involve industrial partners in our research. We have been working in the areas of, catalytic combustion of hydrocarbons, water-gas shift reaction for fuel cell applications, partial oxidation of hydrocarbons, NOx traps for automotive applications and transformation of biomass into fuels.

We are a part of the Purdue Catalysis Center, which fosters interaction among faculty and students in catalysis research groups by collaborating on research projects, sharing resources and facilities, and holding weekly joint group meetings.

Research Group

Graduate Students

Jonatan Albarracin-Caballero

Richard S. Caulkins

Yanran Cui (co-advised with Nicholas Delgass)

Mckay Easton (co-advised with John Nash and Jeffrey Greeley)

James Harris (co-advised with Nicholas Delgass)

Ishant K. Khurana (co-advised with Nicholas Delgass)

Juan Miguel Gonzalez Martinez (Visiting Student)

Cory A. Milligan (co-advised with Nicholas Delgass)

Garrett Mitchell

Arthur Shih (co-advised with Nicholas Delgass and Rajamani Gounder)

Abhijit Talpade

Han-Ting Tseng

Awards and Honors

AIChE Fellow, 2014

Purdue College of Engineering Faculty Award of Excellence on Research, 2014